As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Traditionally, some information handling systems utilize each of a dedicated network interface card (NIC) and at least one non-dedicated NIC. A dedicated NIC is often used as an interface between an information handling system, which includes the dedicated NIC, and a management network by which an administrator may direct management traffic to a baseboard management controller or similar system via an “out-of-band” communications channel that is isolated from the “in-band” communications channel for which network traffic other than management traffic may be communicated (e.g., via the non-dedicated NIC). However, because isolation of management traffice from non-management traffic often requires additional cabling and network router ports, administrators may often shooce to operate information handling systems in a “shared NIC mode” by which the non-dedicated NIC may communicate both management and non-management traffic.
However, regardless of whether a dedicated NIC mode or shared NIC mode is selected by an administrator, traditional approaches for supporting both have disadvantages. For example, a baseboard management controller (BMC) in a traditional information handling system supporting both modes may require two media access controllers (MACs), as dedicated NICs and non-dedicated NICs may utilize different standards or protocols to communicate with the BMC (e.g., the dedicated NIC may utilize Reduced Media Independent Interface (RMII) to communicate with the BMC and the non-dedicated NIC may utilize Network Controller Sideband Interface (NC-SI) to communicate with the BMC, each of which cannot be electrically or logically shared). Also, using traditional approaches, a Management Data Input-Output/Management Data Clock (MDIO/MDC) bus is also required between the dedicated NIC and the BMC. Moreover, the dedicated NIC may include a PHY that may consume power regardless of whether dedicated NIC mode or shared NIC mode is selected.